BENTONVILLE -- Benton County justices of the peace are looking for ways to better communicate their concerns to local legislators.
Several members of the county's Legislative Committee have expressed frustration with legislation being considered in the current session that they were not aware of in advance.
Legislative sessions
The Arkansas Legislature convenes its regular session on the second Monday in January of every odd numbered year. A session lasts for 60 days unless the legislature votes to extend it. The Legislature’s fiscal session is convened on the second Monday in February of every even numbered year. The governor of Arkansas can issue a call for a special session during the interim between regular sessions.
Source: Ballotpedia
"It's tough to react," said Kevin Harrison, justice of the peace for District 6 and chairman of the Legislative Committee. "When you don't find out about something until it's ready to go to the House floor, that's too late. That's being reactive and we've got to be proactive if we hope to get anything done."
Susan Anglin, justice of the peace for District 9, echoed Harrison's concerns. She wants county officials to try to improve communication with legislators and with the Association of Arkansas Counties, which represents counties and county officials.
"I've found this year to be very frustrating," Anglin said. "We haven't had the communication from the AAC and our legislators I feel we've needed. On several bills we've had concerns about, we didn't hear about them until they were in committee."
Anglin wants the county to do more on its own behalf as well as looking toward future sessions of the Legislature in a more timely manner.
"We're too late for this year but we do have ongoing issues we need to communicate with them on," she said. "We need to educate ourselves on what they have passed and what may come up next year."
Tim Summers, a former justice of the peace and state representative from Bentonville, said he understands county officials' concerns and pledged to take some responsibility for correcting the problems.
Summers said he had three pieces of advice for county officials. First, he said, they have to understand how state government works before they can have any influence. Next, they must stay in touch with their legislators, he said. Third, they must communicate needs before the Legislative session starts.
"If you're on the Quorum Court and you're not familiar with how the Legislature works you're not going to get things done," Summers said. "The absolute key is communication. But if you wait until the session starts to communicate with your legislator, it's too late."
Legislators with no background in city or county governments don't understand that part of the process, making the job of county officials even harder, Summers said.
"If you've got legislators who haven't served at the city council or county level, they don't know how we operate at the county," Summers said. "If you've got county officials who haven't served in the Legislature, they don't understand what happens in Little Rock."
The time to try to influence the next legislative session is right now, Summers said.
"What they've got to do on the Quorum Court is be going to work in April to craft legislation for the next session," he said "This session is about over. You've got to start right now working for the next. It takes some time."
Dan Douglas of Bentonville, also a state representative and former justice of the peace, said county officials also have to understand state legislators are limited in what they can do. The ongoing discussion on increasing what the state pays counties for holding inmates sentenced to the state prison system shows those limitations, he said.
"The governor has in his budget a modest increase, from $28 a day to $30," Douglas said. "That may not be what they want, but the state has limited funds just like the county. We do address the issues."
Douglas concurred that Benton County needs to get to work early and also to build support from other sources, including the Association of Arkansas Counties and other counties with similar concerns.
"When I was on the [quorum] court, we got our legislative agenda items and had a joint meeting with Washington County," Douglas said. "We built a coalition."
Anglin wants to have a meeting in June with county officials, area legislators and Association of Arkansas Counties representatives to discuss county legislative issues and how to work together. Harrison wants the Legislative Committee to be more active during the time the legislators are not in session.
"We do need to reach out to them during the off season," Harrison said. "This time of year it's really tough because they're only in town on the weekends. We definitely need to build better relationships."
NW News on 03/29/2015